Paint, Crochet and Cake

Hello.


Today is Ta-Dah day, of the painty kind.  I don't know if you will remember as far back as November, but I began a painting which I was going to call Heading for Home and it didn't see the light of day again because life became very busy because of Christmas and all things related.


Today, after a long, long absence I retrieved it from it's unplanned hibernation, stuck Jack Johnson on the stereo, made a nice cup of green lemon tea and slowly...oh so slowly, sank back into that happy place of mine that I haven't been to in a long while.
It felt very, very good to pick up the paintbrushes again, to daub them in soft acrylic paint, to layer and draw into the picture...to have a random idea which finalised the whole thing...and then hear the new name of the painting from somewhere very quiet deep inside emerge:  And it was 'Home'.  Just that.  Plain and simple.

I am very contented with how this one has turned out.  I like the warm, peaceful ambience of it, and the colours (which are quite a departure from my usual colourful palette).  I like the migrating birds, you can almost hear them calling in that far off way that you occasionally hear - it's lonely and wonderful all at once.

I know this is an Autumnal scene, and at the moment I am feeling the first optimistic sensations of Spring being around the corner...so I hope you don't mind me sharing it with you if you are also looking very much forward rather than back.

(getting there...pausing for a very necessary tea break at this point)

This painting will soon be available to buy on my website - and as a print too, and I will keep you posted as and when.

Well...since my last post I have been doing a bit more hooky stuff of an evening, working on my long standing Rainbow Ripple blanket.  And I've also been busy ordering some new wool for a New Project...I wonder if you can guess what that might be?  Aha!! You ought to, you are responsible for it coming about if I'm honest - I noticed that quite a few of you who kindly posted comments left very encouraging messages about my Summer Shawl idea.  It doesn't take much persuading to get me started on something exciting and woolly, so for now let me say, it is most definately on the cards and something I will be sharing with you soon.

In the meantime, here is a picture of the Small Blanket I did, and silly old me forgot to post this pic on the last post!  OOooops!

Just look at that yummy stripy lovliness people!! Isn't it zingy?  Just looking at it makes me feel like getting hooky again, right now, right this minute!

But I have more pressing matters to attend to.

I need to go and eat one of these:

Me and the Little One baked these scrumptious chocolate brownies a couple of days ago.  Now I must admit, no, they are not strictly part of the GL way of eating as they contain flour and sugar etc; but I do think that one of life's pleasures is allowing ourselves a good treat here and there.

For the most part, my diet is very good - better now than it has been in years, but I cannot turn my nose up at organic chocolate brownies, made from good ingredients in our own little home.

Well, would you?

It's all about balance - and just before I go, I want to try and answer a question a few people have asked me since my last post.  It's the one about time, and creating more of it for yourself in a busy, full life.

A simple answer to this is to think carefully about how you spend your time.  Count up how many hours you veg out in front of the TV in an evening, how many hours you spend online, how many hours you devote to doing activities that don't really fulfill you etc.  Then make the necessary changes: Par down your TV and internet time (seriously, get an alarm or something to remind you to turn it off), cancel things you don't enjoy, stop going running if you hate it, and use that same time to do something you do enjoy!  It sounds ridiculously simple and that's because it is.  We each of us have 24 hours a day to play with - and it really is up to us how we do that :)

I hope your day is a blue sky one, full of sunshine ~ thanks for popping in.

See you soon,

Julia x